Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As all of us across this place know, small and family businesses are the lifeblood of our local economies. In the electorate of Forde that is no different, with over 17,000 such businesses stretching from Shailer Park in the north to Upper Coomera in the south, Carbrook in the east and Park Ridge in the west. We have fantastic local, family-owned businesses like Mosaic Pizza at Charlotte Park, run by Louis Oberleuter; Coffee Reserve in Upper Coomera, run by Scott Stratford, so if you want a great coffee in Upper Coomera, there's no better place to go; Michael Boehm runs Beenleigh Glass; and Harvey's Towing at Park Ridge is run by Joe Andriske. Other examples include Peter and Sue Wilkings, who run the Bayside Wake Park at Carbrook, or Alex and Tina, who run A&T Cabinets at Loganholme. These businesses support our local community in a wide variety of areas, but importantly also provide jobs for locals. And it's their contributions to our communities that make those communities such great places to live.

I want to take this opportunity to recognise one of our longstanding local businesses, JG Lohrisch Funeral Directors in Beenleigh, which celebrate 150 years in business this year. They are one of the oldest family-run funeral homes in Queensland, and can trace their history back to 1870, when Emil Lohrisch established the business shortly after emigrating to Australia from Prussia. Today the fourth-generation owners, Richard and Vicky Lohrisch, run a business that is a far cry from the horse-drawn hearses that their ancestors had.

Richard and Vicky are stalwarts in the Beenleigh community, and I've had the privilege, as their federal member of parliament, of being able to get to know them over the past 10 years. They support a wide range of community organisations and events, the Beenleigh PCYC among them. Part of that support is seeing the PCYC's new boxing centre being built. They also provide enormous support to the Beenleigh Historical Village and Museum. Earlier this year they'd hoped to host a big celebration for their 150th anniversary at the historical village, but, as with so many things, coronavirus took care of that.

But more importantly, businesses like JG Lohrisch Funeral Directors, as well as many others in Beenleigh, a town that's been around for over 150 years, show the enormous potential and opportunity that exists for a town located halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We now, courtesy of Logan City Council, through investLogan, have a new crane in town. A new eight-storey tower is being built as we continue to invest and grow and develop what is a key community asset in a key town halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

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